25 October 2010

The 26th Annual West Coast Civil War Conference will take place November 12-14, 2010, at the San Francisco War Memorial Building located at 401 Van Ness Avenue. Nationally known speakers will address the subject of coastal defenses so the conference is called Blood on the Ramparts. The conference is co-chaired by Fred Bohmfalk who ran the last conference in Sacramento and Brad Schall who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, a 6000 member organization. Along with Fred and Brad there have been about a dozen people (Jeff included)who have been planning the event for the past eighteen months.

After two days of presentations, Sunday, November 14, will be tour day of Fort Alcatraz, Fort Mason, Fort Point and the Presidio. The event is co-hosted by the Friends of Civil War Alcatraz and with the San Francisco Civil War Round Table. The key note speaker will be the renowned Civil War author and speaker James McPherson. His book Battle Cry of Freedom has sold six hundred thousand copies.